Skype Ringtones Puzzle

[Atip]

in Saiix-14.1 I have skype-4.2.0.13 installed in my home directory and made a symlink
in ~/bin to skype in skype directory. All worked fine until now suddenly there were no more
ring tones and other sounds. echo test still worked.
I am not sure if this problem arose after an upgrade with gslapt.

I tested a few opening settings from a terminal like

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 ./skype-4.2.0.13/skype

No ringin tone. However,

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cd ./skype-4.2.0.13/ skype

skype would open with tones

So I put a script skype in ~/bin

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cd ~/skype-4.2.0.13
./skype &
exit 1

and skype will open with the tones back by just typing skype in a terminal or clicking on skype
in fluxbox menu.

What could be the reason for such a weird behavior?

[TracyTiger]

Your example where the tone doesn't work just has you typing "skype" not "./skype".

In case this is the issue ...

It doesn't matter which directory you are in. If your search path doesn't include dot "." (the current directory), or doesn't include the path to your current directory, then the command in your current directory won't be found to execute.

Type "which skype" and you'll see which file will execute, if any.

Type "echo $PATH" to see the places where the system will search trying to find your command to execute.

This was just a reminder in case the problem didn't have to do with the program skype at all but rather the shell you are operating with.

Since it worked in the past. Perhaps your $PATH no longer includes the ~/bin directory. I just checked the Salix64 14.1 I installed earlier today and ~/bin is not part of the $PATH in a new install. Perhaps your $PATH was reset and a different "skype" file is now executing.

Another option is that skype is calling another program it can only find when the current directory is ~/bin. Again a $PATH problem.

[Atip]

Did I not make myself clear?

Skype does open and I can make callls and receive calls if I am in front of my computer
and see someone is calling me, however, there is no ringtone on the instances mentioned.
This has nothig do to with PATH.

[mimosa]

The skype executable in that location is probably looking for things it can only find relative to that directory. To install it so it behaves like a normal application, you'd need to configure the build to put whatever those components are in whatever the normal place is in a Slackware system, and then (if needed) make the compiled binary look for them there; that might mean passing settings to ./configure or editing the Makefile, if there is one, or both. Since it's just for your own use and it works, though, all is well.

There may also be an issue with environment variables (such as $PATH) affecting the way you can call it from that directory and have it look there for the components that provide the ringtone etc.